As I've said before, the main reason for dwindling attendances is the cost. 20 quid for championship rugby is ridiculous and there's no way new fans will be attracted. But the clubs just think that if the team plays well then folk will just start rocking up. Wrong. Some clubs have decided not to publish the attendance, fev against Toulouse for example. No idea why. Embarassed?

Yes on finance admission is a lot of money and a real conundrum to solve, if you keep prices at there current levels then you put people off but when you cut them you risk an even bigger shortfall if the numbers don’t increase.
Without digging too deep last year Batley received a lot of praise for doing this but just a year later the prices are back up again with no concessions which would seem to indicate it didn’t work.

On interest in the game, admission prices are just one part of the problem where for example because of the way the game is being run especially outside Super League even die hard fans are being turned off in droves so if the hard core are losing interest no wonder the soft core are being affected the same way.

On the ground issue the size is determined by the pitch and then the amount of infra structure around it and then onto how you use that as close to it’s maximum potential to cover both the game and beyond with some sort of income / return over a full year and not just a couple of dozen out of the 52.
The number of clubs with ground and attendance issues past and present would again seem to indicate that it’s another hard nut to crack.

It's hard to compare because Batley don't appear to announce their attendances even though looking at highlights the ground appears empty. I remember reading something that the Batley season ticket holders were cheesed off about last season's match day discount because they were effectively shafted paying an average higher match entrance than the "less loyal" fair weather fans. Fax did a "season ticket holder bring a friend for a tenner" a couple of seasons back which, as a then season ticket holder myself, was quite annoying because my non season ticket holder mate got in for a tenner whilst my average cost was £17 !!

The clubs have to be smarter than that. I've suggested before that mini season tickets might be a good idea for those fans who don't want to commit to full season tickets (holiday commitments). A good example, using me as a yardstick, would have been a £50 triple ticket for Wakey/Dewsbury/Bradford as my attendance for the Dewsbury match depends on what side of bed I get out of whereas the triple match ticket would have definitely got me going - so a tenner made for the club.

Incidentally I didn't get a season ticket this time because of the stingy discount and also influenced by that bring a friend thingy.

Its fairly simple, if the council were to sell the shay for housing then the amount gained would be nowhere near enough to buy some other land and build a stadium.

I for one appreciate the challenge the club is facing and the attempts at some of their initiatives and did buy season tickets at the full price when I could have had a discount and have brought a friend or two paying the full price for them as well.

Likewise in the past (and I know others) that have taken advantage for example of both early bird season ticket and mini season ticket offers.

I look at it this way, it’s not me and them, it’s my club and I’ll support it for as long as I can, how I can.

On the bigger picture you could have a hundred people in a room with a hundred different brilliant ideas on what they should do.

Just look at the state of things in the sport and the numerous different attempts at getting it right, there’s probably already been a hundred and more great ideas talked about, thrown out or tried and then thrown out again with no progress apart from taking the game backwards.

On getting the pricing right and people through the gate it’s a challenge every club is facing and if there was an easy one fix for all then all would be doing it so it seems no one is being smart enough.

I agree, it is a hell of a job getting it right and I sympathise the club (like all the others) is in between a rock and a hard place. It's just that the current option being taken of holding admission at 20 quid and hoping crowds will get better is not working and one by one clubs will fall off a cliff.

It's been another crap championship as Wakey has trashed the competition, we all should have signed amateur players, saved tons of brass, and waited for them to go back to SL. Not sure there'll be respite next season either. London took the part time route after knowing they'd be relegated before a ball was kicked (so daft it beggars belief) so they might still have lots of their SL money left thus cornering next season's championship best talent.

Probably the only positive with London coming down is that most of their squad has signed elsewhere for next season which means they will have to rebuild. Money has never been a problem for them with David Hughes pumping it in and in recent years he has been cutting back so I don't reckon they will be coming down and been anything much better than a decent side.

On the crowds issue, I think it said it all on Sunday which will be the biggest attendance of our season but looked like it had the fewest Fax fans that have been at a game in a while. I don't know how that will change because what we serve up is pretty dire, but that's not just Fax its the game at the top level in general. There are plenty of good amateur games over the weekends that you can get your rugby fix at and it be more entertaining.

Should get back to basics and revamp the entire championship. There's nothing wrong with RL being a regional sport and we must rid ourselves of this obsession with expansion which just isn't working.

So I'd scrap League 1, promote Oldham, Keighley, Rochdale, Hunslet and Workington. Leave out the rest. Also eject Liondon, Toulouse and Sheffield leaving us with 16 "grass roots" clubs. Re-introduce the Yorkshire Cup as a pre season pool competition giving us an annual chance to play SL clubs. Re-introduce the NRC as a further opportunity for silverware and get back to the top 5 play off for the Grand Final.

Slightly controversial that but a bloody hell of a lot better than what we have at present.

I think that Sky will soon pull their support of rugby league. The new streaming channel is crap. You can’t record from it and once the game is finished you can’t watch it again. Only highlights of the games and they put the score up which I don’t want to know. All the hype about showing all games live has gone to the wall now the football season has started. Catalan/wigan on Saturday and Hull KR/Salford on Friday only games that we can record. In a way I’d like to see SKY bin SL and see what happens to all the elite teams.

Alternative brilliant ideas doing the rounds are that the game is actually rumoured to be considering, is for Super League to be taken over by the NRL giving IMG the boot and bypassing and breaking ties with the RFL leaving them and the rest of the clubs to sort the rest of it out. Which if it transpires. That should really be fun.

At the same time the RFL have received applications from 3 other clubs to join Championship 1 which they are now considering which in itself might come as a surprise to learn the RFL are capable of thinking.

I don't know what the NRL would gain from taking over SL.

As for SKY maybe pulling the plug, now that wouldn't surprise me. SKY are feeling the squeeze in general, their subs are way too high and other streamers are gaining market share. If they don't pull the plug then I reckon they'll significantly reduce funding, because they know no other broadcaster is interested. I bet the Beeb are paying nak all for broadcasting SL games. Quite hilarious I say!

Maybe the NRL taking over would be a great thing as the Aussies know how to look after their No1 sport and make it THRIVE?

If the NRL do actually do become involved in 'UK' RL it'll be to cherry pick a small number of the 'top' clubs to take part in a trans world competition.

The big question would be how they would going on looking after a sport that was maybe 7th or 8th rank in the nation.